for the Mind, Body and More
Cacao has been used for thousands of years — not just as food, but as medicine, ritual and currency.
It started with the Olmecs (around 1500 BCE), the first known people to use cacao. Then came the Maya, who honored it as a sacred gift from the gods. They drank it during weddings, funerals and other important ceremonies — bitter, frothed by hand, full of meaning.
The Aztecs took it even further. Warriors drank it before battle. Emperors drank it for stamina and desire — legend says they sipped 15 golden cups a day. When Cortés and Columbus first entered Mexico in the 1500s, they were offered cacao in the royal palace & that moment changed everything.
From there, cacao crossed the Atlantic. In Spain, it became the drink of aristocrats. Marie Antoinette had her own personal cacao recipe, served in custom porcelain cacaoware, painted blue to match her eyes. At first, it was sold in pharmacies for its health properties. But then came sugar. Then came mass production. And yes — there were no cacao trees in Africa until somebody planted them.
Today, 'cacao ceremonial' is still traditionally enjoyed across Central and South America. Atlaca brings you cacao from the very lands where the Olmecs, Maya and Aztecs once honored it. We carry that tradition forward. With care. With respect. With a deep belief in the balance between people, nature and land.
The name Atlaca comes from Nahuatl, the Aztec language, and symbolizes the act of carrying water — a shared responsibility in ancient Mesoamerican cultures that reflected unity and interdependence.
It stands as a metaphor for collaboration: farmers nurturing generational lands, jungle ecosystems working in quiet balance and conscious consumers carrying the cycle forward.
Atlaca honors the timeless bond between people, nature and the land.